Technical Abstract:
The Sustainable Feedstocks for Advanced Biofuels Workshop was developed to provide a science-based background and forward-looking strategies that would enable agriculture to help solve our nation’s bioenergy challenges. This summary chapter confirms that agricultural and forest resources have tremendous potential to help solve America’s energy challenges. The crucial messages are that natural resources are living and dynamic - changing in response to natural and human-induced stresses and that they cannot be managed using rigid engineering practices or designs. Regional roadmaps developed as the primary outcome of this workshop illustrate the regional diversity that exists for those seeking to develop sustainable feedstock supplies. There is no single feedstock that will be desired or most effective for every region or the nation as a whole. However, understanding and utilizing feedstock diversity and its linkage to conversion technologies will certainly be crucial for all potential solutions.